laptopn: a computer in graceful, self-contained
form. Laptops are small, wireless, resource-minimal and portable.
You can take them wherever you go and hide them when not in use—no
ugly computer to occupy space. The LCD flat screen displays are
clearer and cleaner than cathode ray tube monitors (with less
brain-wave-zeroing effect), and the keyboards are small and quiet.
Even without portability, laptops have many advantages over desktop
machines.

Laptops also have their shortcomings, the most obvious of
which is price. Laptops are very expensive and
difficult to repair or upgrade, although it
can be done. They also offer inferior
performance compared to desktop machines, specifically in disk
access, processor speed and hardware support. Hard disks on laptops
spin slowly and are loathe to accelerate or decelerate; hence, disk
operations can be very slow, especially random accesses. Take a
look at the Bonnie benchmarks (see Table 2) to see just how slow.
Processors are also slower and more expensive. One reason is
laptops have relatively poor ventilation (making them quiet), so if
you have too many megahertz/gates/volts on the chip/CPU, it will
get too hot. (Notice the popularity of StrongARM processors in
machines without powerful fans, for example the NetWinder and
Empeg.) Also, laptop processors are physically different from
standard processors because they must be small and low-profile,
although smaller chips require less voltage so they don't generate
as much heat.

LinuxLaptops Attache

The Good

Debian GNU/Linux

Entirely free software

Flexible, loose

Superb console mode

Highly tuned, fast

Well customized

14.1" LCD screen is clear, flicker-free

The Bad

GNOME/Enlightment is a tad slow, sometimes
problematic

Too much swap

Missing some software

Very expensive

At the time of this writing, the two Linux-specific laptop
providers are LinuxLaptops and ASL Workstations. LinuxLaptops is a
specialty shop run by Nathan Myers, which deals exclusively in
laptops for Linux and has three models at the moment. It is highly
focused on optimization and tuning, working within the interesting
limitations of laptop hardware, to maximize Linux performance. ASL
Workstations, on the other hand, is a successful Linux workstation
builder which provides many excellent workstations and makes its
AS-LT300 laptop as a logical component in a complete product line
of high-powered, server-oriented machines. Penguin Computing is
also developing a laptop, but it is still in beta and was not
available for review. VA Linux Systems, the best-known Linux
machine maker, has discontinued laptops for the time being.

The Laptops

Since only enormous firms have their own laptop factories,
laptop providers for Linux buy standard laptops and configure them
for Linux. Incidentally, the AS-LT300 and Attache are both ChemBook
7400s. Internally, they have slightly different configurations, but
the most significant difference is between their respective Linux
setups. Table 1 shows the more relevant features of the laptops
sent to LJ, but keep in mind that you have
much flexibility in configuration if you order a laptop for
yourself.

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